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It is now closing in on the end of the season and reminding you that our closing day is Saturday 11th May. At present it is proposed that it will be a meal with a band to follow at 7.30pm. TICKETS can be purchased from the bar or office
at $18 each.

One factor is that all trophies to be returned in good nick. Nice and shiny please!!

A sponsors ‘thank you’ night has been arranged for Friday 3 May 2013 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. It is hoped members will attend and mingle with our sponsors.

Also a reminder that the midweek AGM is at 1.30pm on Tuesday May 14th at 1.30pm and then our club’s AGM on Sunday 26th May also at 1.30pm.
As you can see by the nomination board in the lounge there are too many vacancies to be filled. This is one time for the club to show its strength and have an active committee to see us through the next season. We urge you to give this serious thought and have pro-active members to guide us through. While many think being on committees is too onerous a task, we all have a responsibility to participate and be part of a strong club.

CONGRATULATIONS go out to those who were successful during the season and notably our Division two team in the national inter club finals. They were Dean Gilshnan, John Pene, Brian Grammer, Trevor Butcher, Colin Cherri, Rex Stokes and Paul Rowe with Brian Henn the manager.

Dean followed this success by combining with Pat Horgan to win the Specsavers Open men’s pairs over Adam Johnston and Scotty McGavin.

Rex Stokes was runner-up to Terry Puklowski in the C of C over 65yrs singles while John O’Connor and Colin Cherri won the over 65yrs C of C pairs.
John O’Connor continued his winning way with a narrow win in our club’s points day. He had 49pts, followed by Barbara Healy and Craig Morgan with 47pts, Meg Forno with 46pts and Anne Ayers with 45pts.

Commiserations to John Leahy and Jacko Stephens for a near miss 17-18 in the 1-2 yrs pairs to Himitangi Beach. Eva Heinrich went out in the semi finals of the women’s singles.

Twilight Bowls resulted in a popular victory to Basil Parkinson. He won the revised countback from Paul Joe, Craig Morgan and John Pene, with Anne Horne fifth In the Skoglund competition Palmerston North Division 1 went to Palmerston North, Division 2 to Foxton Beach with Palmerston North Gold 4th and in Division 3 Johnston Park won with Palmerston North Green 2nd.
The Elizabeth Walker competition was won by Foxton & Beach.

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April usually sees champion of champion events each week but with these events having been run off earlier there is little else other than club open tournaments for the rest of the season.

The exception is the Centre Open pairs to be played from 13-15 April but I gather there are not a large number of entries. With club news non existent or not being passed on I am making this my final column for the season. I am not going to trundle through an almanack of the season but will share a few highlights as I saw it or personally enjoyed.

• First in the order of highlights was the sight of two Northern women Anna Davis and Mere Freyer contesting semi-finals of the National singles at Paritutu in New Plymouth. Both contested admirably and an ounce of luck here and a slide there could have seen them both in the final.

• Not far behind were the efforts of Palmerston North and Northern in winning the National Second Division Interclub for men and women respectively. The second Division is far more strongly contested than first division as many clubs see themselves as only cannon fodder in the higher echelon. Palmerston North is arguably the oldest team to win a National title with Trevor Butcher, Colin Cherri, Rex Stokes, Brian Grammer and John Pene all long serving members of the National Superannuation club and Paul Rowe starting to knock on the door. The only relative youngster is singles player Dean Gilshnan who marked his coming of age as an outdoor bowler winning his five matches. John Pene at 81 would be right up there amongst the oldest to win a national title.

• The performance of Manawatu’s mens team in finishing second at the national intercentre was very meritorious and they were but one shot from possible victory. They proved to themselves that Auckland greens need hold no fears for them.

• Two champion of champion victories that gave me delight were the tiny Shannon club’s Women’s triple and of course Lyn Jensen of Johnston Park (and the other half of my bed) in the singles.

• With the absence of centre open events I found myself playing a lot more open tournaments. The more I play the more I enjoy them and the one that gave me particular delight was my first foray into Palmerston North’s Golden Oldies.

So those are some season highlights as I saw them.

Easter saw Northern’s very popular three day triples held and it proved to be yet another highly organised and hotly contested event. It is a very good format with 20 of the 32 teams taking home prizemoney. In the top division final Terry Curtis skipped the two Rossiters Terry and Liz to victory over Neil Gordon, Brian Henn and Lynlea Rogers. “Scruff” Gordon showed his legendary toughness by dragging his team out of a 13-3 grave to get back to 15-16 only for Curtis to kill the end after the final bell.

One of the real features was the number of local bowlers who took the opportunity to play a tournament with players from other clubs and there were at least a dozen such combinations. Mike Hodge from Terrace End had his parents from Whangarei join him for the tournament which must be pretty special for those involved.

And my bowler of the season? A deadheat between Reg Webb from Te Kawau and Dennis Richards from Masterton. It’s not for their on green performances but the phenomenal way they support the game by entering tournaments. I see more of Dennis than most of my clubmates and Reg’s name seem to be in every tournament. Those types are the real ones who keep the game healthy.